The main contractor has been chosen as Newry Construction for the £40m transformation of Liverpool's Wolstenholme Square.

The development will deliver five blocks ranging in height from three to 10 storeys, providing 447 studio and one bedroom apartments as well as a new passageway through to Seel Street, lined by shops, cafes and offices.

Elliot Lawless, director of Elliot Group, said: "Newry Construction have performed time and again for us and were able to demonstrate how they could apply the same methodology to deliver quality and value at Wolstenholme Square,"

Construction of the scheme will begin in August and is expected to take 18 months to complete. Demolition of a group of low-grade post-war warehouses which dominated the site has already been completed.